


Monogrammed Quills are for Losers

by kisslicknipsuck



Series: 2013 adventchallenge [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2013-12-06
Packaged: 2018-01-03 15:36:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1072170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisslicknipsuck/pseuds/kisslicknipsuck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry buys Draco a Slinky for Christmas. Malfoy reacts unexpectedly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monogrammed Quills are for Losers

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt 'Slinky' over @ LJ's adventchallenge for Day 5/25. Unbeta'd.

He just wanted to leave. The whole exchange was too awkward. Harry'd walked up to Malfoy's desk casually enough, barely an inkling of nervousness in his gut, and had been immediately received with suspicion. 

"Has someone died?" Malfoy asked from his seat behind the desk. He looked up at Harry with narrowed eyes and the beginnings of a frown pinching his brow. 

"What? No, of course not." Harry bristled. "Why would I come to you if they had?"

"Why would you come to be for _any_ reason?" Malfoy raised a brow at him and Harry rolled his eyes at how Snape-ish it was. 

"Here," Harry said as he thrust a small box wrapped in silver paper in Malfoy's face. "You're my Secret Santa recipient. Happy Christmas." He had to clench his empty hand into a fist at his side to keep from fidgeting. 

Malfoy split a glare between the box and Harry for a few moments and then said, "What is it?"

Harry pursed his lips at his fellow Auror and said nothing. Such a stupid question did not deserve an answer. 

Sniffing haughtily, Malfoy snatched the box away from him and started turning examining it from every angle. He turned the box over in his hands at least a thousand and one times before Harry lost his patience. 

"Would you just open it," he snapped, shuffling his feet nervously. 

Malfoy eyed him for a moment longer but eventually started tearing at the Spello-taped edges of the wrapping paper and opening it delicately. Of course Malfoy would open gifts like a prat, Harry thought. 

"Slinky," Malfoy said, reading the red lettering on top of the box. "What in Salazaar's name is a Slinky?"

Apparently he'd not been asking Harry because he opened the box and pulled the Slinky out before receiving an answer. Once in his hand, all he could do was stare at the silver contraption coiled in a stack on his palm. Finally, he turned to Harry and gave him a questioning look. 

"It's a toy," Harry offered. 

"A toy?" 

"Yes."

Malfoy considered the Slinky again with a frown. "How does one play with this toy?"

Harry shrugged. "People like to let it walk down stairs."

"You have to _walk_ it? Is it a toy or a pet?"

"It's a children's toy, Malfoy, Merlin. It's not a wizarding toy; you don't have to walk it. You don't have to do anything with it if you don't want to." Harry crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at the floor. It'd been a stupid thing to get Malfoy. He should've got him the monogrammed quill like Hermione had suggested. 

"You got me a Muggle toy? A _children's_ Muggle toy?" Malfoy stared at him incredulously. "Why?"

Harry sighed. "I don't know. I just thought—" He stopped short and rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. "You've seemed tense lately and Slinkys can be soothing, you know, if you move them back and forth between your hands." Harry reached out his hand for the toy so he could show Malfoy what he meant. "It was stupid," he said, putting the Slinky back down on the desk. 

Malfoy picked the Slinky up and started slinking it back and forth like Harry had shown him, strangely saying nothing. He didn't even agree that Harry was stupid. It was almost alarming. 

"I just didn't know what to get you," Harry went on, made anxious by Malfoy's silence. "I don't really know you very well, you know?"

The Slinky stilled in Malfoy's hands and the man looked up at Harry, his grey eyes more intense than Harry remembered them ever being. They made Harry stand up straighter and turn to face Malfoy more directly. 

"Would you like to?" Malfoy said in a low voice. 

"What?"

"Would you like to know me better? We could get dinner some time. A friend of mine just opened a new restaurant in Bristol if you'd like to go."

Harry didn't know what to say. That had been the last thing he'd expected from Malfoy. He'd expected insults, ungratefulness, and general maliciousness. Not to be asked out on a date. What was he supposed to say to _that_?

"Er…okay," he finally said and then licked his lips. 

Malfoy smirked at him, but for once it didn't seem condescending to Harry. "Brilliant. Tomorrow night. I'll meet you at the Leaky Cauldron at seven and we'll Floo over together. Wear dress robes." And with that, Malfoy turned back to his Slinky, which he'd started tilting back and forth again, mesmerized by the flowing metal. 

Paralyzed with shock, Harry was unable to move until Malfoy glanced up at him again and said, "Are you still here?" And then Harry shook himself and awkwardly shuffled away to try and figure out what had just happened and why it was making him grin like an idiot.


End file.
